It is customary for religiously practicing Jews to read from an annual cycle of weekly Old Testament readings called Torah Portions. This is said to be the same reading schedule that was taught every Sabbath in the Synagogues during the times of Jesus in the first century.

As Christians exploring the Torah portion cycle we must maintain a balance of including the Old Testament, the prophets, and the gospels in our weekly bible study.

Torah Portion Name and Readings-

Korach is the Hebrew name for “Korah” and is the name for the weekly Torah Portion reading for the Book of Numbers starting in chapter 16 verse 1 and going through chapter 18 verse 32.

Prophets and New Testament-

It is also important to point out that along with the Torah portion readings and teachings, there are what are called Haftarah portions which are readings from the Bible in the books of the prophets. This week’s haftarah readings come from the book of Isaiah in chapter 66 verse 1 through verse 24.

The gospel readings incorporated with the weekly Torah portion readings come from the book of Mark in chapter 9 with verses 40 through 50.

Torah Portion Overview-

In today’s world of Democracy and freedom we often have a hard time relating to theocracy. We live in a world that tells us that we are all special, everyone is a genius, and every child deserves a trophy. This can lead to a kind of religious narcissism where we all think of ourselves as prophets, apostles, or even teachers. In the internet age where anyone can write anything, we confuse noise with substance and volume with importance. We are told that we should respect everyone’s opinion and that truth is relative. The Bible though, has something else to say about that. The only one deserving of glory is Yahweh, He chooses whom He will, and anoints those whom He has chosen. The truth is what matters, not our opinion.

Moses was chosen by God. We have already seen how God defended Moses from gossip and made it clear that He was a special prophet, a man whom He speaks to face to face. But now we see a different challenge to Moses, the challenge over the priesthood of Aaron. This challenge comes from perhaps an unexpected source, Moses’ and Aaron’s cousin Korah. Remember that Levi had three sons; Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Kohath had four sons, Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. Amram was the father of Aaron and Moses, and Izhar was the father of Korah (Exodus 6:16-21). Think of this, Aaron and Korah were not just from the same clan/tribe, they were family, they were cousins! They must have grown up together! The betrayal wasn’t from an outsider, it was from his close family.

Reuben was Jacob’s firstborn son who had been disenherritd because he slept with his father’s concubine (Genesis 35:22, 49:3-4). Was this shame the reason that some men of Reuben joined with Korah in an attempted coup? Perhaps it was because they camped close together (Numbers 2:10, 3:29)?. Not only did these men from Rueben join in with the rebellion but so did many other men, two hundred and fifty “chiefs of the congregation” (Numbers 16:2).

The challenge was over the priesthood, which at this point in history consists of Aaron and his two sons Eleazar and Ithamar, since his two eldest sons Nadab and Abihu had died for offering strange fire (Leviticus 10:1). (Their story bears a striking resemblance to this story!) Aaron as the high priest and his two sons were the only priests that existed at this time. They were not yet a clan. It would have been easy for a powerful leader to come in and execute the family and then take over their jobs.

Numbers 16:3 (ESV)

“They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?”

Consider this, where were the Levites? They are supposed to guard the sacred things and serve the priests. Where were the Levites to stand up in defense of Aaron and his sons? Instead we see silence on the part of Levi. Two hundred and fifty well known leaders of the other tribes join in with Korah and his co-conspirators. The image here is simple, a political coup to usurp the priesthood and take priestly power to themselves. Korah starts by trying to rally the rest of the people to his side.

Moses falls on his face and asks them to bring their censors with incense the next morning to see who the Lord chooses.

In my opinion the censers were most likely commonly used bronze fire pans that each man would have for use while camping. However they were attempting to use them as holy censers. They were clearly mixing the common with the holy. We know the fire pans were not holy when this started because they became holy once they were offered before the Lord and the fire of the Lord touched them (Numbers 16:38). The Bible is painting a picture here. The common fire pan being used for holy offering of incense was similar to a Levite attempting to usurp the priesthood!

There is even more irony here. As the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary explains in the article on censers,

“The cultic use of incense offered in censers may be Egyptian in origin. Its use in Egypt apparently served apotropaic purposes. Worshippers would carry censers in processions to keep away the evil forces associated with impurity (Haran 1978: 239–40).”

Apotropaic is a scholarly term that means to avert from evil. Think of how people today carry a rabbits foot for good luck. The irony then that these objects that were sometimes used to avert evil were the object of their judgement.

Remember that Nadab and Abihu offfered strange fire and the Lord consumed them with fire (Leviticus 10:1-2). I don’t understand why Korah and his conspirators didn’t see the trap. who would dare to approach the tabernacle with rebellion and murder? Who would dare to use a common object for the holy? Who would dare to usurp the holy priesthood that Yahweh had chosen?

The judgment the next day is final. The two hundred and fifty men who were wanting to be priests come with their offering and were consumed with fire from the Lord. The ground opened up and swallowed Korah, and the other rebels and their families. Korah’s sons, however, did not stand with him in rebellion and so were spared (Numbers 26:11) and later wrote some of the Psalms (Psalm 42, 44-49, 84-85, 87-88). We can see here that the sons are not punished for the sins of their father (Ezekiel 18:20).

But what can we learn from all this? The obvious would be don’t rebel against God’s anointed servants or authority. The second would be don’t appoint yourself when God has not done so, this was the sin of Korah. The third lesson we can learn is that we should worship God the way He wants to be worshipped. All this is bundled together in a holy and righteous fear of the Lord. We should fear Him, as He is Holy and Just! We show reverence to Him and obey Him. We don’t seek to do our own will in our own way, but instead we follow Him and trust Him. We look to Him as our authority and leader and obey His words.

Torah Portion Scriptural Highlights-

• Numbers 16:1 The rebellion of Korah over the priesthood

  Numbers 16:41 The people revolt over the death of Korah and the chiefs

  Numbers 17:1 Aaron’s staff produces almonds as a sign that he is chosen

  Numbers 18:1 The Priests and Levites inheritance

Haftarah (Prophets) Scriptural Highlights-

• Isaiah 66:1 The Lord rejects the sacrifices of the rebellious

  Isaiah 66:7 The Lord will give peace and restore Jerusalem and judge the nations at the last days

Brit (Gospel) Scriptural Highlights-

• Mark 9:40 Working in His name brings unity

  Mark 9:42 The severity of sin

Bibliography

• Gordon J. Wenham, Numbers: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 4 of Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1981), 149–155.

• Carol Meyers, “Censers,” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992) 882.

• Carol Meyers, “Firepan,” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992) 796.

• Stanley E. Porter, “Eleazar (Person),” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992) 432–433.

• William H. Propp, “Ithamar (Person),” The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992) 579–581.

The Book of Numbers “Bamidbar” which means “in the wilderness.”

The Old Testament is commonly referred to as the Torah. It is considered the most sacred of all of Israel’s Scriptures. Most of our modern Bibles include the Old Testament “Torah” as the first five books in the Bible. The name for the forth book of the Bible, Numbers, is called Bamidbar in the Hebrew. The name “Bamidbar ” comes from the opening phrases in the book of Numbers which means “in the wilderness.”

Numbers flows directly out of the stories in the previous books of Exodus and Leviticus and recounts their journey in the wilderness as they leave Mount Sinai.

As Christians, we find the book of Numbers and the stories therein, as a historical account of Israel as they journeyed through the wilderness which helps to inform us on how we should face adversity, hardship, trials, and tribulations, as well as judgment, with faith, courage, and obedience.

To Watch an overview of this week’s Torah Portion CLICK HERE